By David Hirning
Correspondent
To look at the numbers, Jamie Redd is having a fairy-tale beginning to her sophomore campaign at the University of Washington. After the first five games of the season, the explosive 5-10 guard has poured in 29, 23, 32, 8, and 32 points, setting career highs and leading her team in scoring.
But in many ways, Redd's transition to her second season of college basketball has been more like a waking nightmare.
Redd's sleeplessness in Seattle began last spring. A highly touted recruit from San Francisco, Redd had just finished a spectacular freshman year, leading the Huskies in scoring at more than 15 points a game and earning an honorable mention for the All-Pac-10 team. Her sky-walking drives to the hoop and slick no-look passes wowed the league and the fans, as Redd finished second in the voting for Pac-10 Freshman of the Year.
Then the bomb dropped. Washington head coach Chris Gobrecht, who had built the Husky program into a regional power in her 11 seasons at the school, abruptly resigned to take the head job at Florida State. The coach who recruited her, the coach she left the California sun and braved the Seattle rain for, was gone.
"It's been one of the hardest things in my life," Redd says. "because I love Coach G (Gobrecht) to death. She's a great lady and I have so much respect for her. It's such a hard thing to go through -- you go through the recruiting process, you weed out all the coaches, and you find the coach that's right for you, like one-in-a-million. And then you have to change coaches. It's been very difficult."
Determined to focus on improving her game, Redd was playing over the summer when she had another obstacle thrown in her path: a knee injury that required surgery. Although this type of injury can be devastating to a slashing, driving player such as Redd, she worked hard and was able to return to the court before the season started. Redd insists that the knee "doesn't really" bother her, but new Husky coach June Daugherty and her ginger steps in the interview room contradict this.
But this apparently wasn't enough of a whammy for Redd. The basketball gods decided to give her one more tweak heading into the often-jinxed sophomore campaign, in the form of another knee injury -- this time to her backcourt mate, senior Laure Savasta. A dynamic team leader and the most prominent upperclassman on the squad, Savasta's loss damaged the Huskies mentally as well as physically.
"It's a big loss," Redd admits. "It's one of the hardest thing because she is a key player -- she's a senior, and she's a leader out there. But we can't freak out -- we have to be positive, and everybody has to step it up a notch."
At least the injuries came early in the year, before the Huskies got into the meat of their Pac-10 schedule. Surely Washington could coast during the non-conference games, get some experience against some lesser opponents. Right?
Uh-uh. The gods continued to be cruel. Redd and the Huskies stared at a schedule that featured four nationally ranked teams in their first five games. Yipes. It's no wonder that Redd considered boarding the next train out of town after the one Gobrecht jumped on. With three years of eligibility remaining, Redd would have had plenty of offers if she had elected to transfer.
But Jamie Redd is not a quitter, she's a fighter. The talented player continues to persevere, doggedly working against the odds to keep her team together and make it a success. If sheer will could win basketball games, the Huskies would have been 5-0 instead of 1-4 after their first five contests. In those five games, Redd scored her career high THREE times while playing the demanding point guard position most of the time.
Despite all of the hardships thrown at her so far in the young season, Redd seems unfazed. She began playing basketball at the age of five, and had a no-doubt rough introduction to the game matched against her older brothers and uncles. Later, she had to handle the pressures that come with being a high school All-American with coaches beating down her door. Even before the calamities of this year, Redd was forced to take a prominent role last season as a freshman when injuries struck Husky veterans.
"Last year I was placed in a situation where I had to be one of the leaders on the floor, and it's the same thing this year," she says. "I just need to do a better job of being a leader for my teammates. Basically every team I ever played on, I was one of the leaders, so I'm used to it."
Daugherty is anything but surprised at the backcourt gem she has inherited. "I had a chance to work with Jamie when she was still in high school, at the Olympic Festival," where Redd was one of only four high school players to make the cut. "She's an excellent athlete. Right now, Jamie is asked to take on being a leader, as a sophomore, being top scorer, as a sophomore, and making a lot of plays from the point guard position," Daugherty notes. "This is a young lady that eight weeks ago had knee surgery. She's playing in a lot of pain, but she'll do that to help her team. I think she's doing a remarkable job."
The Huskies lost their opener on Nov. 24 to then-No. 6-ranked Louisiana Tech by three points, Redd besting her career high by one point with 29. Her team trailing by two points with 13 seconds left, Redd went to the free throw line. In another tough blow, she converted the first shot but missed the second. Tech grabbed the rebound, and Washington fell short against a very strong team.
Six days later, the Huskies lost another heartbreaker at home, this time to No. 15 Penn State. Again, Redd was the player with the ball in the key situations. With under a minute to play and the Huskies clinging to a one-point lead, Redd stepped up and calmly drained a 15-foot jumper to give her team a three-point bulge. After the Nittany Lions rallied with a three-point play to tie the game, the Huskies again went to Redd. Double-teamed, she missed two shots, and the game went into overtime, where the guests won it by three.
After the game, Penn State coach Rene Portland acknowledged that the Nittany Lions had drilled their players on stopping Redd's deadly penetration. Given the outside shot throughout the game, Redd took it, and hit some big threes, ending up 4-for-12 from behind the line. But despite her 23 points, 5 rebounds, and 5 assists, Redd was not happy with her play.
"I don't think I played very well. I'm a little frustrated -- I think I took some shots that I probably shouldn't have taken, but I'm learning," Redd says. As Daugherty noted, Redd is "very hard on herself." When asked what part of her game she works most on improving, Redd answers quickly, "Just my all-around game."
From there it was on the road for Washington, to play at No. 19 Texas. Redd stepped up again, setting a new career high with 32 points on 46 percent shooting. Redd added seven boards and four assists, but the Lady Longhorns posted win No. 600 in the history of their program, 77-64. After the game, Daugherty told reporters, "We're guardless in Seattle," referring to the Husky ranks depleted by injuries to Savasta and backups Katie Kerr and Eboni Conley.
Because of Savasta's absence and the lack of experienced backups, Redd is placed in an awkward role of playing the point guard but also filling the role of leading scorer. Redd continues to draw Daugherty's praise in these roles, but the injuries have definitely hurt the young team, and Redd cannot do it all herself. It is telling that at the Dial Classic tournament in Lawrence, Kansas on Dec. 6 and 7, the Huskies win big in the first game while Redd is relatively quiet. In the game, Washington overwhelms Houston 86-52 for its first win of the season, while Redd contributes just eight points on three-of-nine shooting.
In the tournament final against a more talented opponent, Redd is again the main weapon for the Huskies, but the result is another loss. Despite tying her career high with 32 points, No. 18 Kansas wins, 76-61. Redd is one of two Huskies named to the all-tournament team.
Through all the season's many trials, regardless of their record, Washington's near misses and Redd's sparkling performances have certainly broken ground toward what Redd states is the main goal: respect. It's something that Huskies had once under Gobrecht, reaching the NCAA regional finals in 1990. In recent years Washington has lost some of its status, eclipsed by conference rival Stanford, and now want to win it back. Trying to build on last year's 16-13 finish, Redd will continue to push her teammates and herself.
"We're not going to back down to anybody," she says. "It doesn't matter if it's our house or theirs, somehow, some way, we're going to make them respect us. We're going to come out and play ball. That's what we're here for."
12/10/96